Chang Shows Class, Agassi Crassness in Davis Wins

The story of the United States-Paraguay Davis Cup competition Friday came down to what Michael Chang did on the court and what Andre Agassi did off it. It was, respectively, the thrill of victory and the agony of arrogance.

Going into this weekend’s competition at the Sonesta Sanibel Harbour Resort, the U.S. team was determined to right the so-called wrongs of March, 1987, in Asuncion, Paraguay, where the American team lost in a 3-2 stunner that sent the U.S. Davis Cup tennis effort reeling for two years. The Americans had stubbed their toes in South America and needed Chang and Agassi to get them off on the right foot here.

And that’s exactly what happened. At least on the court.

The 16-year-old Chang, from Placentia, beat veteran Victor Pecci, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, in the opening match. Then the 18-year-old Agassi, from Las Vegas, whipped Hugo Chapacu, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1.

Although the results certainly weren’t painless for the Paraguayans, they were quick. Chang won in 2 hours 46 minutes, not long by Davis Cup standards. Agassi finished in 1:25, barely enough time to get a suntan.

So everything seemed wonderful again for the U.S. Davis Cup effort, especially with Ken Flach and Robert Seguso ready to clinch the victory over Paraguay with a doubles victory Saturday, and with France taking a 2-0 lead over Israel Friday in their Davis Cup meeting in Tel Aviv.

If France and the United States win this round of the Davis Cup’s World Group competition, the next round will be played in the United States April 7-9. Were Israel to win, the Americans would have to go to Tel Aviv.

And all was wonderful during and after the Chang match. Chang--who won’t turn 17 until the 22nd of this month and is the youngest in modern-era Davis Cup to play for the United States--was sage and surgical in his decision over Pecci, who won his first Davis Cup match for Paraguay at about the time Chang was turning 10.

Pecci is 33 now and near the end of his tennis trail. Once ranked in the world’s top 10, he has no ranking now, hasn’t played a Grand Prix tournament in 15 months and has sore knees and a sore back, leading to sorely lacking mobility.

He also may have been put off his game by political upheaval in Asuncion, where earlier in the day, the Paraguayan government had been overthrown.

But Pecci, who was playing his 40th Davis Cup match, is nothing if not game, and he managed a 7-6 win in the first set, which was historic in itself. His participation in a tiebreaker--one of the first in Davis Cup play since the rules were changed last year to allow tiebreakers in all but the fifth set of competition--gave him a deserved spot in the tennis record books.

But Chang, as quick and agile as Pecci was not, raised the level of his game a large notch in the next three sets and won going away.

Pecci’s strategy was to serve and volley, then to chip and charge on Chang’s serve--anything to get the point over with quickly and keep the heat on Chang. But once Chang got into his own groove, Pecci spent the rest of the match watching the ball sail past him on either side.

“When you play older guys, and you hit the ball right at them, they’re great, as good as anybody,” Chang said. “But when you keep it away from them, make them chase a lot, well, you usually win.”

If that sounded a bit disrespectful, it paled in comparison to the Agassi show--both mid-match and post-match.

Agassi not only beat Chapacu, he made a mockery of it. He went through his standard routine of playing with one of the linesmen, plus his normal mid-match chitchat with spectators, not to mention his squeal in the midst of a shot by his opponent and his hand-over-heart routine when a shot by Chapacu barely went long on the baseline.

All in fun, he says. In increasingly poor taste, his critics--an increasing number--say.

At 6-2 and 3-1 of the second set, Agassi hit a serve that looked good but was not seen well enough to call by the linesman. In the ensuing discussion and delay, leading to Agassi’s eventually being given two more serves, Agassi yelled to the crowd, “I never would have gotten two in Paraguay.”

Since he was complaining about having to re-serve, that was an unusual statement. But it served to begin a rush of childish behavior and led to some harsh questioning by the media afterward.

After leading the crowd in a couple of chants of “USA, USA,” Agassi played an out ball for no apparent reason other than to make Chapacu look ridiculously easy to beat; tried to hit a ball out of the stadium for no apparent reason, and, after finishing off his overmatched opponent, jumped the net for the handshake.

Agassi is ranked No. 3 in the world, Chapacu No. 490. Yet Agassi appeared to want more out of this than just a win.

Jimmy Connors, when asked to comment about Agassi after a tournament last year, said: “That’s what makes this game so great. We get to play these guys again.”

After Friday’s match, Agassi began his news conference by saying: “I actually didn’t play well, but then, I didn’t need to.”

That established, he was asked if he didn’t feel his conduct could be taken as an attempt to embarrass Chapacu.

“I’m not making fun of him, I’m making fun of Paraguay,” he said. “This is the Davis Cup, not tournament tennis. There was no mercy out there today.”

Throughout the news conference--in fact, since he has arrived here--Agassi has seemed bent on not only making up for the American loss in unruly conditions in Paraguay, but perhaps even showing that turnabout does not always have to be fair play.

“I said to the crowd at one point out there that they should remember what (Paraguay) did to us,” he said. “Now it’s time to rub it in.”

Later, he said that he was mostly “working on some things in my game” against Chapacu.

And when asked if he thought the Paraguayans were upset or distracted over the news of the military coup in their country, in which possibly hundreds were killed during 6 hours of fighting, Agassi said he didn’t “even know how to spell coup.”

In Argentina in Davis Cup play last year, Agassi made headlines by catching a good serve from Martin Jaite to “give” Jaite a game in a match in which Agassi was romping. Jaite, a veteran, was offended.

In Los Angeles last fall, Agassi enraged opponent Mark Woodforde by yelling at an umpire while Woodforde was discussing a call with him. Also in Los Angeles, after Mikael Pernfors had beaten him in the Volvo final at UCLA, Agassi took the microphone and called a spectator a jerk for being loud during the match.